Disclaimer: I do not own OHSHC it belongs to Bisco Hatori

Saying this place was huge was an understatement. It had to be by far the most luxurious, well furnished, overpriced place she'd ever seen. But, with as much money as they had coming to them from their fashion business it wasn't a surprise they'd decided to burn some of it on things such as fountains and cars.

The night before, she'd made the call to Kaoru accepting his brother's case. Now here she sat, alone, watching the many frantic maids and butlers clean. This mansion probably had more rooms than she could count. Most of which she could easily gauge were rarely used at all. She discovered this when she got lost on the way to the bathroom. Even with directions she somehow stumbled into two dining rooms, four entertainment rooms, one library, and even the laundry room before finally she'd opened the right door.

This place is a maze. How does no one find themselves needing a map just to navigate?

Since her last trip around the house she stayed rooted to the seat offered to her while she waited. Hopefully her employer would quickly finish whatever business it was he was doing in his office soon.

"Ms. Fujioka?" A deep voice called out. Her head snapped up and she stood, clutching onto her briefcase. Before her an older man stood, his body bowed slightly in greeting. When he straightened his eyes roamed over her body, calculating. His nose scrunched up as if he'd tasted something sour. "Please follow me. Master Hitachiin is ready to see you."

He turned, giving Haruhi the opportunity to look down at herself.

Hey, she didn't look that bad... Sure the suit was a little old (it was her mom's), and instead of a dark grey it was now a lighter grey, but it still worked for the purposes she needed. Puffing out her cheeks slightly she pulled down on her suit jacket and skirt in indignation and followed up the winding steps after the butler.

They arrived in front of a large mahogany door, the name Hitachiin engraved on the outside of it in gold cursive letters. The butler knocked on the door twice, looked back at the lawyer, then pushed open the door revealing the same man who'd entered her own office the day before. Except now he looked slightly calmer. His hair still stuck up in odd places, and his clothes a wrinkled mess, but his eyes held more of a spark and his face more relaxed.

"Sorry, you've probably been waiting for quite a while." The man spoke, his hazel eyes locking onto her own brown ones.

She bit her tongue. A while? Try two to three hours. All of which included more than one disgusted stare in her direction from his oh-so-kind hired helpers. Kaoru raised his hand to stifle a small chuckle which only helped to anger her more.

"I'm sorry. You made the strangest face when I said that. I really do apologize. Something...came up. But it'll be fine now that you're on the case." For the first time since she met him he smiled and for some reason seeing it was enough to send a wave of calmness through her, pushing away some of the growing bitterness towards him.

He truly was a piece of work. Even though he had paperwork piled to the ceiling, even though his phone was ringing off the hook, he could still smile. Although, his tired appearance and tensed position said volumes about how he handled things behind the scenes.

"Now that you're here we can drive down to visit my brother." He said standing and grabbing his coat from the butler she hadn't even realized still stood in the room watching. "We'll take the limo and you can leave your car here. I'll have security watch over it. "

"That won't be necessary. I don't have a car..." Her hands curled tightly around the handle on her briefcase.

"Hmm?" He paused, his trek to the door and tilted his head back to look at her, his arm mid-sleeve in his coat. A playful twinkle flashed in his eyes and his lips twitched upwards slightly. She could already feel the blush spreading across her face.

What? Was her lack of transportation funny to him?

Rich bastard.

What was the saying? 'When you assume you make an ass out of you and me'. Except right now, how he was acting made her feel like it was more her than him.

Haruhi's back straightened. "I don't have a car. Not everyone is as rich as you. And even if I was I wouldn't spend it on buying a car when a train or bus is just as good."

Kaoru's tense body relaxed and his laughter broke free, echoing off the pristine white walls. Standing there now, watching him tremble and gasp for breath, she saw how much he'd needed a good laugh. He'd needed something to tear through the stress. Something to get his mind off the constant calls from the police and off his worry for his only brother who was now rotting in a detention cell. Even if that something happened to be her commoner spirit.

"Thanks." He gasped between breaths. "Hikaru will get a kick out of that one."

Rolling her eyes she turned on her heel and stormed out of the room.

"Kaoru!"

"Hikaru!"

To her surprise she watched both men press up against the glass separating detainees from visitors. It was like watching someone make-out with a mirror, except this was only a hug and the other half wore a bright orange jumpsuit and handcuffs. Otherwise, both men were practically identical to each other.

Her eyes lifted to catch the guard at the door. Through all this he still had a neutral expression on his face. He had been trained well it seemed. Or, he'd seen stranger.

"Kaoru, it's horrible here! The food is disgusting, they're forcing me to wear this ugly jumpsuit, and they frisked me! They frisked me, Kaoru! I've never felt so violated. You have to get me out!" The one guard-side screamed after pulling away from their "hug" and plopping down into his seat.

Tears pooled in the younger man's eyes. "Don't worry! Once this is over we'll fly to France and we'll get you new clothes and-"

"It's nice to see you're both so optimistic..." The lawyer cut in. Reason one as to why she didn't want to allow the younger brother into the room. They were treating this like a social call!

"You're not officially on the case until the paperwork is done. So you're just a visitor. Just. Like. Me." Kaoru voiced.

The offer of quality food afterward had been Kaoru's best bargaining technique.

Sighing, she turned back to the matter at hand.

Hikaru.

For someone who was close to being committed for murder she expected to see a little more urgency, but instead the eldest brother chatted away completely ignoring the female attorney beside his sibling. He handled things much better than his younger counterpart by far. But, still she didn't miss the little things that proved her her theory right. This was just a facade. You could see it in the way he twitched whenever someone moved or the light slur in his voice from sleep deprivation. He masked all these symptoms well enough though.

His face glowed with excitement. "How can I not be? You're getting paid to get me off the hook right?"

"I-It's not that easy!" She stuttered back in reply.

Those words fell onto deaf ears.

"Ne, Kaoru... Couldn't you have gotten a better looking one? She's hideous." He jumped up to get a better look at her. "Is that even a girl? There's absolutely no chest at all and her hair is so short she looks like a man! A really, really feminine man."

"I know, I know. I'm sorry, I tried my best." Kaoru apologized. And much to her disbelief he actually looked down, ashamed.

The lawyer sighed. "I'm not here to look fashionable..."

"But you could at least try." They chorused.

Lawyers aren't supposed to be sexy, they're supposed to look presentable. If they wanted eye-candy they could've gone elsewhere.

"Kaoru, you don't look any better. We have the same face. If you look bad I look bad."

The younger glanced down at himself sheepishly as if just now he realized how unprofessional he looked. After all, he and his brother owned one of the leading fashion companies. Looking like he just rolled out of bed or worse was unacceptable in their field of work.

"Ah, well. I..." Kaoru scratched his head, avoiding his brother's stare. A smirk spread across his face and he met his brother's gaze again. "I didn't get much sleep last night without you there beside me."

Kaoru's voice rose slightly in pitch and he turned away as if embarrassed he'd actually said that in front of an audience. His body trembled beside her.

They still slept together at their age? Impossible! They had enough rooms to house at least one hundred people and the chose to sleep together in the same room. How could any sibling be that close to one another?

The twin opposite her leaned forward in his chair. His mouth twitched slightly but then froze into a saddened frown. A cuffed hand lifted to touch the glass gingerly, as if pressing against it too hard would make it shatter.

"Kaoru..." Hikaru started, his eyes softening only for the younger man in front of him. "I understand. It's hard for me too. How can I sleep knowing that I've left you all alone. I wish I could be there to hold you. Can you ever forgive me? I'm such a horrible older brother."

To Haruhi's side Kaoru shot up, nearly knocking his seat to the floor. "Hikaru! Don't say things like that. I'll always forgive you."

The guard in the room shifted uncomfortably from one foot to another.

Okay, this was becoming really gay, really fast.

She coughed. "As much as I understand you miss each other we should get to business."

"Aww, she's boring, Kaoru. If you're gonna get me an ugly lawyer you could've at least made her interesting."

Ugly lawyer?

He shrugged, "I figured her plain looks meant she would be more interesting. At least we tried."

Plain?

Haruhi's body shook. Hate is a strong word, but she could apply it now and not feel any remorse for thinking it later.

"We should start with what you remember from that night." Pulling a notepad and pen from inside her bag she looked up at the older Hitachiin. "Can you tell me what you were doing around 6 pm?"

He froze.

Suddenly the confidence she once saw vanished, replaced now with unfocused eyes and slumped shoulders. Hikaru stared straight ahead, no longer seeing the two other occupants on the opposite side of the glass. His gaze dropped to stare at his clenched hands.

"My memory from then is...a little fuzzy."

Fuzzy? Fuzzy, is not going to work over well with the judge or the prosecutor. Fuzzy, is not going to save him from a possible life sentence or worse.

"You're going to have to give me more than that, Mr. Hitachiin. Otherwise..." She trailed off leaving him to fill in the blanks himself. He opened his mouth to talk then shut it quickly.

She watched his eyes flash from her back to his brother. He took in a shaky breath.

"Is something wrong?" She asked. She shifted her own eyes to glance at the man beside her.

Kaoru had now chosen to try to smooth the wrinkles out of his suit jacket rather than meet the dim eyes of his older brother.

"Nothing's wrong. I just don't remember what happened." Back straightened, and a deep frown forming on his face, Hikaru's gaze pierced hers. "Is that all for today? Or are you going to keep badgering me about things I can't tell you."

Is that all? They just got there! If he was going to blow her off to do better things in his cell then she should just do the same to his case. We'll see how long someone like himself can last with some of the other men she'd seen sentenced earlier in her career.

All of which were much bigger, much more muscular, and had gone through a harder life than Mr. Millionaire in front of her.

"Mr. Hitachiin..."

"Look, I can't remember. So there's no point in asking me questions if I can't answer. Although, I should thank you for allowing Kaoru to visit me on such short notice."

Can't or wont remember?

Her brow furrowed. How much of that story is true?

She'd heard of such things happening in cases like this, but never expected to come face-to-face with one herself. Usually in cases like this the best idea would be to investigate in the insanity plea. But, he doesn't seem mentally unstable. In fact he seemed to be just fine. Perhaps it was shock. Maybe he was trying to block out what he had done.

Or maybe he was lying.

"Hikaru, please try to remember!" The younger brother now spoke up, frustrated tears threatening to fall. "I don't want anything to happen to you..."

He locked his eyes on the identical ones before him. And this simple action sent the confidence radiating off Hikaru to dissipate once more.

"I can't..." Once more the glazed look in his eyes returned. Hikaru's body crumpled into his chair and he raised his chained hands cradle his head. His eyes lowered to the floor. "It's not that easy. You don't understand. I can't. I really don't remember anything! All I remember is...is..."

Tears began to form in the older Hitachiin's eyes.

"If you can't, you can't." Two pairs of watery identical eyes stared back at her.

"I'll come back tomorrow and tell you what you can expect your sentence to be. Hopefully something will jog your memory by then." She met Hikaru's gaze then stood, grabbing her things as she left. Behind her footsteps followed.

"Kaoru... Wait, don't-"

The door slammed shut.

"I'm paying you to help him." Kaoru said, stopping her in her tracks.

She turned to face him. Unlike when they first entered the room Kaoru's own confidence had shattered once Hikaru's had.

She was reminded of the ying and yang symbol and how alike these two brothers were to its meaning. When the two halves combine they work in harmony. But if one disappears the other disappears as well. They cannot exist without each other.

To restore order she had to find the truth or else Kaoru would probably end up destroying himself.

"I will help him." She spoke gently. "But only if he cooperates."

"He's trying!"

"I don't doubt that, but he's given me little to work on."

He's hiding something. It's either something that could hurt his case or something that could help it. I won't know until he trusts me a little more. Until then all we can do is wait and hope for the best.

"He can't remember. It's not his fault."

"This case won't last long if he doesn't give his side of the story." She pointed out.

"What if...?" Kaoru trailed off. He bit his lip and cast his gaze upward. "What if he doesn't have to?

"What do you mean?

"Maybe there's something back at our office. The one at the company."

The company that was closed off and was now full of police because a murder took place inside. This idea was already starting off on the wrong foot.

"That's a crime scene."

"I know but...maybe..." He grabbed her hand and began to drag her. Hopefully this wasn't going where she thought it was going. "Maybe Hikaru still has a chance."

"Can you please explain what you're trying to do?"

"Well." He smiled. "If no one's going to tell us what happened we'll just have to play detectives and find out ourselves."

Thanks for all the reviews guys! I really appreciate it and it makes me want to update faster~ I tried my best to make this chapter longer than the last so hopefully it's a good chapter size. Anyway, again if anything's out of place, OOC, or I have my facts wrong just let me know. Though you can expect a little OOC with this fic. It is AU.

Thanks to Liquidity for being my beta~